The Proteas are taking on India in the World Cup cricket match this Sunday, and South Africa-based Carol Coetzee – who is currently in Chennai – is rooting for her home team. She wants them to beat the men in blue.
But, as CEO of the Kwa-Zulu-Natal (KZN) Film Commission, which participated in the India International Film Tourism Conclave held in the city on Tuesday, she has a singular purpose – to get Indian filmmakers to explore the sights and sounds of her province in South Africa.
Durban, which is part of the province, has already been showcased in a lot of Hindi and other Indian films – Race , Welcome , No Entry , Fida and Hera Pheri are some of them. With two other big Bollywood films ( Aankhen 2 starring Anil Kapoor and John Abraham, and Happy Anniversary starring Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Bachchan) slated to be shot here, it looks like Indian films are being welcomed with open arms in that country.
“The advantages are many,” she starts off, “The climate in KwaZulu-Natal is warm and there is a wide variety of locations filmmakers can tap. There are mountains, greenery, a desert and the coastline. And, there’s wildlife as well.”
According to her, with costs being minimal in that country, shooting there turns out to be a pleasant experience. “It is cost-effective; we recently had a film crew from the U.K. which saved up to 30 per cent on costs,” she explains.
The other advantage that the province has is the presence of a huge Indian population that laps up Indian films and is crazy about our film stars. “I’m not even going to compare the population, but the Indian community is huge and they love anything Indian,” says Carol, even as she highlights the fact that Mahatma Gandhi spent a considerable part of his life here.
She states that it’s not just the touristy places, but offbeat ones – of which there are an abundance in the rural areas – that could attract potential filmmakers in search of virgin locations. “There’s a lot of culture and history associated with those areas as well,” she reveals.
Draw her attention to the fact that Indian filmmakers usually shoot in exotic foreign locations that usually have no relevance to their stories, and she smiles, “It is different for us. But then, we have this booming music industry back there that does a lot of indigenous music videos. Those are quite similar to your song-and-dance sequences.”
